Wichita eagle., 1887-12-23

M0NG0LIAN TARTARS.
A MISSiONARY'S RECITAL OF TIN
YEARS LABOR WITH THEM.

A Wild, Tngovernabie Race Living in
Mines of Coal, Copper and Silver
Hunting the Chamois.
A strangely stirred Belgian priest arrived
on the last steamer frepl China. He is Rev.
Father Gundy, president of the Roman Cptho-
lie missions in Mongolia, where he has been
arduously laboring for ten years past. He is
man of about 20 years of age, with full
flowing beard and rich silken gown of an
Oriental design. Other marks of dress be-
tokened him a resident of land most remote
from ours A reporter sought an interview
with hi,n. He said:
My life work has been with the Tartars
who inhabit Mongolia, and the scenes OF my
work have been close by the great wall of
China The commercial emporium of Mon
golia is Kalgan, a town of 10000 inhabitants
1t is here tha the Russians come TO buy
chamois skins and tea, which the Chinese
residents of Mongolia raise in irrmensesIuan-
titles. The Mongolians themselves despise
tiliing the ground, and as the land belongs to
the different tribes their chiefs have been
selling it off to the Chinese.
''The b-Dngolians are descendants of the
old Tartars, ard raise tens of thousands of
cattle and horses. Beyond this they do moth
ing except hunt. They are wild, ungovern-
able race, living in tents. They are magnifi-
cent horsemen, something like your wild IN
dians Their religion is Tartaric Buddhism
One of their sacred temples is at Kunbm In
Thibet is the great temple of L Lassa, con-
scructed after the manner of an Indian
Buddhist temple. Only one or two Euro
peans have ever been admitted within its
sacred precincts They think the mere ad-
mission of a foreigner within its portals
would forever defle it.
THE RUSSIAN INVASION.
''The Russians, VINO tried TO invade this
country three years ago, have relinquished
their effort. They got two consulates estab-
hshed on the Mongolian coast, and they have
had to give way. They now have open ports
as far as Peking, but no farther All the
talk You hear Of invasions from the Russians
now goes for nothing. Mongolia is under
the domain Of China
''The country is largely desert, although
with water it is exceedingly productive
There are very rich mines of copper and sill
Yer as well as magnificent beds of coal Mon
golia is colder than China, and consequently
the inhabitants, although dress...g somewhat
like the Chinese, put on more clothes. They
are unlike the Chinese entirely otherwise,
being more aggressive and Warlike They
are not tiactable race by any means.
Hunting the chamois is gress sport with
the MOngolians. They are skilled horsemen
and dead shots with their weapons, a variety
of which they use. They are also skillful
with the dart.
In the ten years that l have been 6here
we have succeeded in converting about 1000
OF these wild Tartars. Though wild they are
open to civilizing and hun2nizing influences;
but there are so many of them, and their
country is so large, that it takes long while
TO make much effect upon them as a mass"
The reverend gentleman is going home to
Belgium. He is accompanied by a wealthy
resident of Brussels, Viscount de Benghem
who from March toJuly last, has been max
ing tour OF certain parts of Mongolia and
studying up the habits Of the nativeS.-San
Francisco Examiner Interview